State Standards

12.4 Students analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government as established by the U.S. Constitution.

5. Discuss Article III of the Constitution as it relates to judicial power, including the length of terms of judges and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

Project Summary

In a project concurrent to our reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, our American Democracy class pressed charges against Frankenstein’s creation for the heinous murders he committed. The mock court proceedings taught us how the American judicial system worked and how justice was administered. The majority of the proceedings occurred in the classroom on the day of the “trial.” Our class charged the creature with three counts of first-degree murder. Through deductive reasoning and interrogational questioning of witnesses and the suspect, Max French and I, as council for the people/state, were able to ascertain that the creature was indeed a sentient being that committed murder knowing full well his actions were morally and legally wrong. The jury acted on this information and convicted the creature on every charge.

What I Learned

This project was extremely interesting because it coincided with my own personal experiences with legal conflicts. The project gave me an opportunity to learn a few, new legal terms I was unfamiliar with, but largely only reinforced what I already knew from helping my family’s company represent itself in federal court.